Cryptokitties: Blockchain Breeding | Corey Russ

It’s virtually impossible to make it through the news cycle today without hearing about something related to cryptocurrencies or the blockchain. There are so many competing viewpoints as to what the future of these technologies hold. Will the price of bitcoin skyrocket in the coming weeks, or is it a bubble that will imminently collapse? Is Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ripple the better investment? Do the currencies themselves hold value, or should we be more concerned about the underlying technology? Through all of this noise one of the most important questions seems to have been lost; that question is of course, “How can the blockchain help me breed virtual cats?”.

Thankfully, for those of us that have nothing better to do than to think about virtual breeding, our long nightmare is over! Cryptokitties has arrived, offering individuals the opportunity to buy, sell, trade, and breed virtual cats using the blockchain. Cryptokitties is one of the worlds first blockchain based games, utilizing the Ethereum network and smart contracts to allow users buy virtual cats using ether, and breed these cats with other cats that the user owns, or with other users stable of felines. The offspring can then be auctioned off for more ether, or can be used for further breeding to create new virtual cats. Each cat has unique traits or “genes”, from fur color, eye shape, personality, etc., and breeding cats with other cats in theory gives the children some characteristics of each parent, with random mutations and new characteristics thrown in, to make a completely new animal, and sometimes very fancy (and expensive!) cats…

WHOA…Cryptocats? Virtual breeding? Ether? What the hell are you talking about?!